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Really? I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but it does. It's startling how quickly the cultural changes happened in the United States, nowadays smoking tobacco is rare and even vaping is uncommon. Although I do notice a much higher rate when I visit the south. The US went from a smoking society to a smoke-free society; I'm old enough to remember when restaurants had smoking sections, but in hindsight I'm astounded they ever did.
I don't have anyone in my extended family who smokes, but I do have several who used to, including my father, grandfather, great grandfather, etc. Getting people to quit smoking is possibly the greatest public health triumph of the late 20th century.
I get why saying this out loud is bad politics, but this approach is the only sane way to deal with terminal illness. In general, I seriously question the value of non-palliative treatments for advanced or aggressive cancer and I worry we put people through unnecessary suffering to prolong their life for miniscule amounts of time. I've seen too many family members go under the knife and come out butchered, only to suffer for a few more months and die anyway. We place so much value on life extension and so little on life enrichment.
Very good post. There's a lot of detail here and I appreciate the inside baseball.
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